Domenico Clerico is often positioned in Piemonte’s modernist school, his style moved more toward traditional winemaking in the later half of his career. Like many of the modernist persuasion, Clerico began with traditional Slavonian oak casks, but he soon began experimenting with first tonneaux, an aging vessel in between the large botti and the modest barrique; however, by 1990, he had begun aging all of his wines in barriques. As much as Clerico’s use of barriques might place him soundly in the modernist camp, his deep Langhe roots make this classification complicated. At the core of Clerico’s winemaking philosophy is his belief that the quality of the vines is the sole factor determining a wine’s potential.
Clerico always regarded production techniques as mere tools of the trade, and appropriately enough, he championed the virtues of terroir by focusing on single-vineyard bottlings that express the merits of distinct sites.
